Dark Knight
First of all let me say hello to everyone. I will try to bring DK closer to everyone that want to play this amazing class but still have their doubts because he is not plain simple to play really. Role First thing first, DK functions as dps-disable hero. He might not deal as much damage as Martial Artist or Fire Mage but if used correctly he can dish out quite a lot of damage. What is interesting about DK is that he is really stun heavy and having silence and a lot of slow along with that he is quite desirable in boss fights. Stats The problem everyone encounter with DK is the fact that he is divided onto two attributes and many players have trouble deciding in which one to invest points. Although his main attribute is strength you will want to put more points into intellect because his spells deal more damage based on intellect rather than strength, so having that extra points in intellect instead of strength will help you with your damage output considerably. I personaly put everything into intellect and left strength on base value. There are two reasons why I did this: -1st reason is, like I said, his spells allу deal more damage based on intellect. -2nd reason is, taking that he is strength hero means that most of your items will give you strength (weapon, helmet, armor, ring) meaning you will be short on intellect which you need if you want to dish out as much damage as possible. Since items will give you enough +strength you don't have to worry about being squishy and instead can focus on intellect(which will increase your damage output) rather than putting everything into strength(which will decrease your damage output). Spells Passive part of the spell will give you charge after a certain amount of kills(decreasing from 6-4 as you level up), after every kill you will heal some HP and MP, and lastly you have a chance to rip a soul apart from target on critical strike. Active part of the spell will allow you to absorb souls in area which will heal you and give you charge for the same number of souls as for kills. This spell can be cast on the ground to hit multiple enemies dealing damage to them, slowing their move speed and silencing them for about 0.5 seconds, also explodes any souls hit to further damage enemies. Improved version prolongues silence duration to about 2.5 seconds and has wider aoe thanks to 4 shadows. Obviously spell you will use quite often because of it’s silence and it’s great in combination with W and T. Single target spell that deals quite a bit of damage and stuns target shortly on 3rd attack(after which a soul will be left behind). Improved version adds a small aoe that deals even greater damage and stuns enemies a bit longer. An amazing spell that changes it’s use and damage output depending on whether you have charge or not. You’ll always want to cast this with charge though because of it’s higher damage, aoe and longer stun. Also the soul that’s separated with this spell will give you 1 charge regardless of number of kills or souls you previously collected. Aoe spell that has a couple of uses. You can use it if you need heal, to reduce some high damage considerably, to deal some or if you just need some souls. Using Wall of Terror while having charge will gather souls into a ball and fire them instead of absorbing them dealing damage in a straight line and leaving behind 4 souls upon exploding(can also be manually exploded by using E again after casting). This is where you want to have as much mana as possible, because huge portion of this spell’s damage comes from amount of mana you have. The more mana you have the more damage you will deal, so investing in mana heart (later on mana heart large-frost) will make this spell deal insane amount of damage. Aoe spell that deals high amount of damage and drags enemies along the path to the targeted point making them unable to attack or cast spells until you finish casting. Empowered, this spell becomes very devastating, deals huge intellect damage, reduces attack and move speed of enemies and also decreases their damage. All in all great spell. Aoe spell that deals a lot of damage over time, spawns souls and reduces speed considerably. This spell goes great in combination with Q(Piercing Darkness), you will have a lot of souls to explode or absorb to empower your other spells and heal yourself at the same time. Also when empowered it provides so much slow and stun so always have charge when casting this, especially in raids because you will keep any boss standing in place doing nothing for the duration of the spell. Your ultimate will prolongue Corrupt which means longer spawning of souls, longer speed reduction and longer stunning/damage dealing. Also your clones cast spells and autoattack. When your ultimate is on you will see big red numbers appear, that’s amount of damage your clones have done via spells. Clones are also using effects of empowered parts of spells. Though you won’t see exact numbers of damage done by them, you will see silence, stun etc. They also receive buffs you activate (ex: Niflheim’s active), I don’t know if they receive other buffs like priest’s holy blessing because I wasn’t able to test that. Also one thing to note, when using your ultimate make sure you don’t press F emediately after casting T(Corrupt). By waiting for a couple of seconds after casting Corrupt and then casting your ultimate you will prolongue the total time of Corrupt and deal more damage than if you casted your ultimate emediately. Also spell combinations depend on situation and what boss you are fighting. For example E,E,Q,W,D,T,F,R or T,F,E,E,Q,W,D,R are combinations that I use and they work best for me, if any of you decide to try those same combinations I hope they will do good for you too and if not, you can always come up with your own that might work even better. If you wan’t to prevent boss from activating AMS start with Q,T,F and then use other spells in which ever order you think best. Also one thing to note is the difference between strength damage of your spells and intellect damage of your spells and when to use them. Generally strength damage of your spells is enough in some situations,like killing creeps and some field bosses, you don’t have to worry about charges and improving your spells in those particular situations since they will do enough damage(ex. Death Knight, Ragnaar). On the other hand, when fighting some other bosses(ex. Mana Ancient, Rectus, Demon Lord or any of those stronger bosses) you will want to have charges since you will barely touch them with strength damage alone so you need improved version of your spells in those situations since they deal insane amount of damage. So always have charges when raiding since DK is really quite a disabler and all those disables come from improved version of spells along with your maximum damage potential. Leveling DK is really hard to level (long cooldown of spells and not being the mighty autoattacker like Martial Artist helps in that) so it’s very important to make sure how you use your spells since you won’t be spamming them. What you want to do when you level your DK is to always try to agro as many creeps as possible and make sure you kill them with 1 at most 2 spells rather than using all of your spells because you will find yourself in a situation where you are left with little to no mana and with next to no mana regen early on except DeathBlade you will either have to constantly rely on Sleep-Mana potions (which is taking your time you could be using for leveling) or dying and waiting to respawn with full mana which is again, not very efficient. Best locations for leveling DK(my opinion, I could be wrong)is when you reach level 160 to stay in Duchy of Wallachia until you reach level 240. Reason for this is simple, in Duchy of Wallachia there are more creeps that are very close to each other which will make it easier for you to pull all of them and easily kill them with let’s say E(Wall of Terror). This will allow you to lvl up quite faster than running around in Volcanic Lands where creeps are further away and they won’t give you that much more experience so in my opinion it’s better to skip Volcanic Lands with DK. When you reach level 240 then move to Sea Area and (I know it sounds very boring) farm there until you reach level 410. Reason for this is the same as with Duchy of Wallachia. In sea area creeps are really close to each other which will result in a lot of experience quickly because it takes less time to kill them than golems, they have less hp and armor and it’s much easier to pull them, really, you can pull more than 10 of them easily while with golems that’s pretty much impossible. Also you don’t want to waste your time trying to level up in Fairy Forest because creeps are too strong and too far away and using at least 2-3 spells for killing 2 creeps is just not worth it, so just stick to the Sea Area and you will be fine. If anyone has any more questions about leveling or anything really feel free to ask, I might have forgotten something. Str vs int Strength DK. Building strength DK is good idea at start, it will give you advantage in leveling phase because of higher base damage, hp and hp regen but that’s pretty much it. Keep in mind that you are not tanker in any way nor autoattack damage dealer and that’s all that strength gives you along with not big spell damage which will make you pretty much weak in mid-late game scenario. Your spells won’t hit as hard as they can and using them with charge won’t make any difference whatsoever. Only good thing that will come from charges having strength DK is prolongued silence from Q(Piercing Darkness), stun effect from W(Soul Devastation), slow and damage reduction from R(Chaos Storm) and stun effect from T(Corrupt). Taking those things in matter it’s really not very good to make strength DK because even though he is strength hero he is much better with intellect. Intellect DK. Building intellect DK is far harder(leveling stage)but also far better. You will have more mana and more damage from spells(empowered parts) but also the downside of intellect DK is lack of base damage and hp which will severely criple your leveling and you will die here and there. Now, being a full intellect DK means you will overcome the mana problems that DK has, you will hit pretty hard with your spells(empowered parts) along with applying slows, silence and damage reduction which means you are using your DK to it’s full potential. Although W(Soul Devastation) and T(Corrupt) will deal same damage as if you were a full strength DK(because of str+int combo) your other spells damage output will be far greater so you won’t lose much really and if you are concerned about HP don’t be because you will get enough strength from items so you won’t be squishy. So if you go for full intellect DK you will be much more dangerous than full strength DK and you will also contribute to the team much more(dps wise). So overall either go for Mixed DK(have a little strength, about 300-400 which will be enough to help you through leveling phase and put rest into intellect. Also it won’t cost you much gold to revert strength to intellect once you are fully leveled and when you have some gear) or Full Intellect DK because they both do way better than a full strength DK. Addendum: Since DK has been changed in new versions I will try to explain difference between old DK and new DK. Let’s start with DeathBlade. New version of DeathBlade now gives you charge after 6 denials even when you master the spell instead of 4 as it was but it’s buffed pretty hard (Intellect wise). When your natural strength is higher than intellect DeathBlade will empower your base attack every 8 seconds (when the spell is mastered) with curse which deals additional damage and spawns 1 soul. It’s a nice idea but when you think about it it’s actually not helping you that much or in my opinion at all. You need to collect 2 more souls now for 1 charge on DeathBlade and you gain empower and 1 soul every 8 seconds via normal attack. This is a downside for your passive spell because it will be harder to collect souls because of that somewhat long cooldown on empower and you won’t be able to gather them in one spot to easily absorb them with DeathBlade or Piercing Darkness so in my opinion and for me this buff isn’t that good. It can be useful against bosses but only if you are geared enough so you can continue to damage them via autoattack. Either way if anyone wants to build strength DK go for it since he is a bit better than he was before (keep in mind that you won’t be dealing as much damage as you could), as for me it’s just not worth to invest 2K natural stats into strength just for base attack damage, HP and to improve strength damage of DK’s abilities which is rather low compared to his damage via int part of spells. When your natural intellect is higher than strength you will gain one soul every 4 seconds (when the spell is mastered) and your max charge is increased by 1 (from 2 to 3). This is what I meant when I said DeathBlade got buffed pretty hard. This will make your leveling so much easier than before (when you go for int heavy or full int that is). Basically you get soul and HP/MP heal every 4 seconds in addition to being able to gain charges without killing creeps or absorbing souls. This will significantly increase your survivability, you will be able to survive in fights a lot longer, maybe even longer than full strength DK because of this huge buff. Also since Corrupt now functions differently than before, with int heavier DK it will reduce enemies’ magic resistance by 8% which will allow you to deal even more damage than before. Piercing Darkness now deals INT X 11 for every soul you explode (instead of original X 20), it’s a minor decrease in damage but it’s not a big problem. Corrupt’s empowerment now depends on your natural stats. If your natural strength is higher than intellect empowered Corrupt will stun every second and if natural intellect is higher than strength empowered Corrupt will decrease enemies’ magic resistance by 8%. Chaos Storm now deals 300% damage to snared units instead of 150%. Order of the Hallowed Knights duration is decreased to 15 seconds but damage is increased by 33%. Also the combination of spells (Q,T,F) to prevent boss from casting AMS now works only if your DK is strength heavy or full strength. My opinion about DK is that if you want to be heavy damage dealer go full int, and if you want to tank a lot or survive for long periods pick Knight. Early to mid game gear: Helmet: Jack Pumpkin Helm +1(260) Helm of Everfrost(340) Mask of Blood(240) Horn of Demon Lord(340) Armor: Infected Crab Armor(240) True Dragon Armor Magron(300) Sacred Armor(340) Dekaros, the Unholy Armor(340) Cape of the Dead(240) Ring: Teperua, Ring of Blood(260) Tentacle Horn(240) Mana Heart Large(300) Demonis, the Demon Lord’s Ring(360) Mana Heart Frost(340) Wings: Waterfall Shoes(100) Flame Cloak(220) Corrupt Crystal Wings(300) Weapon: Parasitic Sword(240) True Dragonsword Lainhart(300) Greatsword of Flame ‘Rioreus’(300) Blade of Requiem(240) Karonphniamm, the True Holy Sword(340) Okelanq, Spear of Everfrost(340) End Game Gear: Helmet: Crown of Fervor(360) Armor: Requiem, the Armor of Lamentation(370) Ring: Latea, Ring of Chaos(360) OR Ring of the Reaper(340) Bone Neckless(370) Wings: Fairy’s Wings(360) OR Frozen Heart(350) Weapon: Niflheim(320) OR Spirit Dager A little explanation on why I chose this particular items for end game gear. Crown of Fervor: There is probably no better helm for DK. Yes, Archangel’s Halo is amazing helm but it’s just not good for DK as Crown of Fervor. 410 all stats means you will have a bit more HP and Intellect which is essential for your spell damage, skill damage is a must on DK so another + on this helm, MS is always nice and passive of this helm is simply like made for DK since it converts 2% of your max HP into Intellect meaning you will hit much harder with your spells. Purelight Armor: High amount of strength which gives more HP and HP regeneration, skill damage which again is a must on DK and nice passive. Though it doesn’t give you stats it will make your allies stronger so why not, and at the moment there is no better armor, at least for DK particulary so another reason why I chose Purelight over some other armor. Latea, Ring of Chaos: Extremely high stats(again it will give you some HP and HP regen and also will increase damage output of your spells because of that high Intellect gain), extremely high skill damage, really high MS bonus, armor decreasing passive and absolute protection passive. Good ring for any class but also very hard to make that’s for sure. Skull Seal&Mana Heart Frost are good choices prior to this ring but you will be making your way slowly toward this ring. Ring of the Reaper: High intellect gain, high HP/MP regen, high skill damage, decent AS and extremely good active. The biggest reason I put RoR as an end game ring is it’s active. In combination with CoF if you use it’s active to block some high damage nuke you will gain reasonable int from CoF’s passive and you will be able to deal a lot of damage with one of your spells if casted emediately after using RoR. So basically this ring works as an empower for one of your spells which is amazing. Fairy’s Wings: High Intellect stats which you want more than 425 all stats from Corrupt Crystal Wings, also nice bonus to skill damage, high MS, 4000 HP, 7500 MP(always good for Wall of Terror) and teleport to Prius which is always needed(if you just raided Spider Queen or Guardians it’s easier to teleport than to –recall and wait for revival). Frozen Heart on the other hand will make you a bit tankier and will help with magic damage while slow is good for assisting your allies or just for reducing damage since it slows AS as well. My opinion is that you always want to go for Fairy’s Wings first rather than Frozen Heart since it’s a bit better for DK considering you are damage dealer not tanker. Niflheim is good for several reasons. Damage is ok, high strength is amazing and active that increases it even more(1000) is why you want this sword, especially if you are Int heavy DK or full Int DK. Crit chance will go great with your DeathBlade, meaning your autoattacks will have higher chance to separate soul from target which is always nice. -80% AS is not a big deal because autoattacks are not your primary source of damage so it won’t hurt as much as you’d think. All in all extremely good weapon for DK. Spiritus, the Sword of Elements: I didn’t know about this sword since I’ve been away from TWRPG for quite a while and it’s from newer versions but it seems quite good for DK. 1260 all stats is excellent, will increase your survivability and also Int means more damage from your spells so + on this. AS is never bad, again it will give you higher chance to rip souls apart from enemies which you can use for empowering spells and skill damage is always a must on DK. I don’t really know what Breath of Ancients does but since it’s 360 item I’m sure it’s very good. Thank you for reading this guide. I hope I helped in some way and hopefully more people will decide to play DK since he is such an amazing hero and he is really interesting and fun to play. Also I would like to thank everyone who helped in creating this amazing map, awesome job guys. If anyone has any informations/suggestions that will help this guide become better just post it here and I will include it in the guide. Guide credits by: BleedingMemory Category:Classes